Twisted Masquerade
by jade304
Summary: The master of dimensions is alive, and continues to pursue his goal of a perfect world. This time, however, there is a twist awaiting his rivals; after all, Dimentio has a penchant for the stage, and he intends to present what will truly be the ultimate show.. -HIATUS-
1. Chapter 1

Mimi always hated elevators; they felt like the real-life equivalent of loading screens on a video game. The slightly-distorted music filtered through a speaker in the ceiling; someone decided elevator music was supposed to be calming. Someone out there though the smooth jazz would be calming. Instead, Mimi kept thinking about how she was in a small metal coffin rising high off the ground, and the music was a distraction from the fact-

Okay, she _had_ to stop thinking about that.

The elevator slowed and stopped. The doors opened onto the top of Flopside Tower. As the elevator descended once more, Mimi approached the single door on the tower.

She had seen the brightly colored doors on Flipside's tower, the doors leading to many different dimensions. Her curiosity had gotten the best of her, and she decided to see if there were any more doors on top of the tower in Flopside. In front of her now, however, there was only a single door. This one was larger than the others, and colored pink and black. The design on it reminded her faintly of the book the count used to carry around.

The Dark Prognosticus..

Nobody had seen or heard from Count Bleck...Lord Blumiere..or his wife, Lady Timpani, since the Chaos Heart incident nearly a year ago. Out of grief, Blumiere stole the Dark Prognosticus from his tribe, took on the name Count Bleck, and vowed to destroy all the worlds that took his love away from him. His own minion betrayed him, but in the end the dimensions had been saved.

Nobody had heard anything about Dimentio since then, either, thank_ Grambi_.

The door gave off a slightly ominous aura, but that didn't stop Mimi from entering it.

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

_Castle Bleck?_

The black and pink door closed and disappeared behind her. _Has it always been this easy to enter? _Mimi wondered. It was a white silhouette from where she was standing, but walking closer she saw it wasn't any different than when she was last there.

Interesting. She thought maybe with the Void's closing, the castle would no longer be standing, or at least showing some wear. It looked exactly as they had left it. The Void seemed to be a dimension itself as well; the dark space stretched out infinitely beyond the platform the castle sat upon.

The castle itself had three floors; the first floor was mainly where Count Bleck's lower-ranked minions used to be; brainwashed members of Bowser's army and others. The two upper levels contained the residential parts of the castle, and was home to Bleck's closer minions. She opened the front door.

The entryway was empty, but she could see a few Goombas standing by the door at the other end of the hall. She closed the door behind her, but none of them turned around. They were all seated in a circle, engrossed in an intense game of go fish. The three of them were in a tight huddle, trying to sneak quick glances at each others cards. The one whose cards were being peeked at would immediately shrink back and scowl at the other, while the remaining Goomba snuck a look at their cards. There was a lot of muttering going on in the group, and occasionally one would toss their cards around in a fit of frustration.

"Uh..hello?"

They all jumped at the sound of Mimi's voice. One let out a high pitched shriek.

"Holy_ crowbar_ it's _her_!"

"Um. Why are you guys still here?" Mimi asked. One would think they would have gone right back to Bowser once they were no longer under the count's control. She figured Bowser's minions probably liked him nearly as much as Bowser loved himself, and that they'd run right back to him instantly. The three brown mushroom creatures all glanced nervously at each other.

"I-It's nice here," The Goomba who had shrieked said. "I never really liked Bowser anyway."

The other two nodded quickly in agreement. One dropped his cards on the ground and stood up. He was beginning to bounce around angrily.

"I mean, we Goombas face a lot of discrimination in Darkland, you know, and even in Bowser's army we're just..._expendable_! I'm expendable! Disposable! _Replaceable!_" He took a deep breath. "**_EXPENDABLE_**!"

There was an awkward silence. The Goomba added a quiet "hmph".

"Here we can just...do our own thing," The last Goomba said. His expression suddenly turned hopeful. "You ain't here to kick us out, right?"

Mimi shook her head. "I _guess_ you guys can hang out here..."

The Goombas nodded, sitting back down and picking up their cards. They resumed their game in a more gloomy mood;

"Got any 4s?"

"Go fish."

"Uh-huh."

Mimi slowly backed away, teleporting to the second floor of the castle.

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

The upper floors were a bit more familiar to her than the first; they served as a living space rather than a maze of enemies. Nothing moved here, and she was grateful for a bit of quiet. She walked slowly down the hall, feeling memories creep back in. The Castle Bleck crew was dysfunctional, to say the least, but in a way it was like her dysfunctional family. The only real one she ever knew.

Ascending the staircase to the third floor, she noticed the fine layer of dust on the handrail. Nobody had been up this way in a long time. Everything was so quiet. Almost too quiet.

Aside from a few doors leading to the towers, the third floor was mainly the minion's bedrooms. Mimi's bedroom stood out like a sore thumb; after a bit of convincing (and a _lot_ of whining), she was able to convince the count to let her paint her door bright pink. The door was covered in a mess of drawings, the largest reading:

KEEP OUT, DUMMIES.

A snarky smiley face had been drawn below the words. In response, the face had been scribbled out and written below it:

DIMENTIO THAT MEANS YOU ESPECIALLY.

Upon opening the door, she noticed the room was perfectly clean. Unlike the area outside, her furniture and remaining belongings were free of any dust. She also noticed the drawer she kept her diary in had been left open; the book was missing. Not that it mattered to her now, anyway; she had a new one. She remembered closing that drawer, though..

She shut the drawer.

_Click._

Mimi whipped around. The doorknob moved slightly, then was still. She slowly walked over to the door and tried the handle.

The door was locked.

She jiggled it. No luck. She tried unlocking it from her side. Nothing. She didn't know her door could be locked or unlocked from the outside. She didn't even _know_ her door could lock. She pulled on the handle, pressing one foot against the door. Her hands slipped, and she fell on her backside.

"Hello?"

Mimi stood up and knocked on the door.

"Is anyone there?"

No one. She twisted the handle again, trying to pull open the door, but it stayed shut. She pounded on the door with both fists.

"HELLO?"

"Why on earth are you yelling at a locked door?"

Mimi froze.

The voice behind her chuckled, and she heard a light tinkling sound as a key bounced between her feet. Hands shaking, she picked up the key and jammed it into the lock. Throwing open the door, she ran down the hallway and down the stairs. Panting, she looked around, running down the hallway to her right.

She ended up at a dead end.

Mimi whirled around, but the owner of the voice hadn't followed. She took off running again, heading back towards the main hall of the second floor. She heard the brief clicking of heels on the floor, and quickly drew a box around herself to flip out of the castle, but the box cracked and broke into pieces on the floor. Mimi froze. The clicking stopped, but she felt the presence of someone behind her. The owner of that familiar voice. She slowly turned to face them.

He wore a bright yellow and purple poncho and a matching hat, a jester's costume. His gloved hands held a pink book, labeled "Mimi's Diary." These details, however, were not what had her frozen in place. It was the mask on his face, half black and half white, twisted into an eerie grin. He tiled his head to the side and turned the diary in his hands.

"So nice to see you again!~"


	2. Chapter 2

Mimi quickly tried to teleport again, but once more the box around her shattered. The jester's grin grew even wider, and she suddenly felt anger in place of fear.

That smug little jerk!

She decided to do what she always wanted; she tore her diary from his hands and slammed it right in his face.

Instead of crying out or even flinching, the jester laughed. "Hard feelings?"

"Dimentio!" Mimi snapped. "You're alive?!"

"Alive and well," Dimentio said, gesturing to himself. He picked up the book from the ground and opened to a page towards the back.

"_Dear Diary," _He began, mocking her voice, "_Today is the last day we're gonna have to deal with these dumb heroes. They should be arriving soon. I'm ready to deal with these stupid heads once and for all! Then maybe the count will be happy. I talked to Dimentio and he seems even more excited and ready to go than me! Like, he was really happy. I saw him whistling and he gave me a hug. I shouldn't say this because that dumbo is probably gonna find this, but that hug-"_

"SHUT UP!" Mimi shouted, her face turning red. Dimentio laughed.

"I didn't know you harbored such feelings, dear Mimi!"

"Not anymore!" She yelled, running to punch him. He ducked out of the way of her swinging fist and laughed. "Go back to the Underwhere, they're looking for you!"

"I'm sure they are looking for me," Dimentio grinned, "But they won't find me."

"Well I found you," Mimi snarled, "And when I get out of here-"

"Get out?" Dimentio stopped floating and came to stand in front of her. "I'm afraid you're not leaving here."

Mimi looked up at him, fear creeping back in. "N..not leaving?"

"I never expected anyone to be here," Dimentio said. "I'm not quite ready for the 'family' reunion. But if I let you go, you'd immediately run off and tell everyone. That would be quite a problem."

"What do you plan to do with me?" Mimi mumbled.

"Nothing at all," Dimentio said. Mimi glared. "Honest."

"Uh-huh."

"Truthfully, I have no use for you. I could kill you on the spot if I wanted." Mimi's face paled, and he laughed. "But I don't think I will. Wouldn't it be funner to keep you here alone with me as company?" Mimi looked disgusted at the thought.

"What are you planning?" She said, her voice cracking slightly. "What did you even come back here for?"

He gave her an _are-you-kidding _look. "I think it's obvious why I'm here, dear Mimi.." He smiled. "Vengeance!"

"You're gonna have a toughb time, then," Mimi said, crossing her arms, "Because there is no Chaos Heart for you to take anymore."

"Of course not," Dimentio said. "If there were, we wouldn't be able to have this lovely conversation." He turned to leave, tossing the book over his shoulder at her. She caught it and watched him go, slightly shaking in both fear and fury.

"But the Dark Prognosticus is still out there somewhere."

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

Dimentio teleported into his old room and locked the door behind him. He leaned against it and sighed.

This already wasn't going as he anticipated it would.

He looked about his room; unlike Mimi's, his room was a bit more simply decorated; bed, desk, chair, closet. His closet doors were purple and yellow, the bedspread purple, yellow, and green diamonds. Other than the walls, the rest of the room was the black of everything else in the castle.  
The wall above his desk was covered in papers; most of them notes written in a different language or a garbled code he had made up that only he would be able to understand. Most of them were various magic spells, others were instructions for performing certain magic rituals, others were simply notes. The only thing on the desk was a small stack of papers torn from a notebook; only the Count would recognize what was written on them, and the Count never entered his room. It wouldn't matter anymore, anyway, he thought; Count Bleck was dead, along with that wife and secretary of his.

He smiled slightly. At least he could off one of them.

On the papers he had written passages from the Prognosticus. The book never left the Count's side, but as he would sleep, Dimentio would take the book from his bedside and read through it. He only copied down a few noteworthy things; the passages about the man in green, ones about the destroyer of worlds. All of these were meaningless; they had come to be, but in the end, the prophecy had been undone. Dimentio had failed.

He crumpled up the papers and snapped his fingers; they disappeared in a puff of smoke. While the prophecy in the book had not come to be, the book itself was still an immense source of dark power, much more than Count Bleck could have known.

Count Bleck. What a truly pathetic man, Dimentio thought, using the Dark Prognosticus for the most selfish of reasons. Love. Disgusting.

He caught wind of the Count's plans, and decided to feign loyalty to him, offer his magical services. The Count may have been lovesick and heartbroken, but he wasn't clueless; he suspected Dimentio was up to no good. Eventually, he decided to accept the jester as his last minion, and Dimentio began planning.

He planned to aid the heroes in defeating Count Bleck, and once the Count was out of the way, he would take the Chaos Heart and destroy the worlds himself, and from the ruins create his perfect new world. He had thought of everything that could go wrong, had a solution for everything. Even the smallest changes he had a backup plan for. Even if he died, he still had a plan.

He never thought those two lovers would sacrifice themselves to destroy the Chaos Heart. He underestimated the bond between Count Bleck and his minions. That was what ultimately lead to his failure; love.

How humiliating.

It didn't matter now; he had drifted about the Underwhere, thinking desperately for another plan, while avoiding Queen Jaydes at all costs. Once he spoke to her, she would surely immediately banish him to the darkest depths of the Underwhere and all chance of escape was lost.

He saw an opportunity, though, and grasped it.

He awoke in the last place he had been; Castle Bleck. Completely untouched from the last time he had been there. The Void still swirled around it; it made up a dimension all by itself. He settled on it as a place to stay hidden until he had found the Prognosticus again. He never expected Mimi to find it.

He could work around her being here. She would hopefully find something to occupy herself. He couldn't let her go; the minute he did, he would be done for.

He sat on the edge of his bed. He had a plan, but it required the Dark Prognosticus. The book's current location was unknown.

First, he needed to find that book.

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

Queen Jaydes was livid. How could this happen?! How could one of the most damnable beings to ever exist manage to escape the Underwhere on his own? He had been avoiding her, and she let him go for the time being; she would come for him eventually, but for now he would have no chance of escape without meeting her first.

And he got out!

"Um...your Highness?"

The queen of the Underwhere turned to face one of her D-Men. "Have you figured it out?"

He looked extremely uncomfortable. "Um...yes we did, actually. Er...um..."

"Well?"

"You see, we just...well...huuuh...um..."

"Come on, out with it!"

"He walked out."

"..."

Was she hearing him correctly?

"Pardon?"

"Uh...he just walked out. Eer...someone...kinda...left the gate open..."

...The gate was open.

Someone left the gates to hell open and he walked out.

Jaydes' scream could he heard throughout all of the Underwhere;

_**"WHO FORGOT TO LOCK THE GATE?!"**_


	3. Chapter 3

Dimento was somewhere out of the castle, and Mimi was left by herself. The moment she was certain he was gone, she tried again and again to teleport out of the castle and get back to Flopside, but she would only end up in another part of the castle.

She really _was _trapped here.

Nevermind that Dimentio was even alive, what was he planning? He must have gone looking for that book the Count always carried around; the Dark Prognosticus. But the heroes destroyed that along with the Chaos Heart...and nobody had heard from Lord Blumiere or Lady Timpani since then.

Mimi kicked the wall.

"Dumb clown!"

Her voice echoed off the walls, and she got no response. She was alone here. Mimi was never alone in the castle before; there was always _someone_ around. Nastasia finishing paperwork, The Count...doing Count things, O'Chunks training, Dimentio practicing his magic (or harassing someone), or Mr. L at work on Brobot. Without anyone here, the castle felt cold and ominous.

_I wonder where this castle even came from, _Mimi idly wondered. She decided sitting around moping and otherwise being bored out of her skull wasn't going to help anybody, and she went back up to her bedroom.

She was going to open her door when she noticed something strange. Dimentio had left his door slightly ajar.

Mimi gave the hallway a quick once over before tiptoing down the hall. She had never actually been in Dimentio's room, and she was curious. What could the jerk be hiding? Probably several million copies of her diary keys, or some more dumb masks, or maybe something even more stupid.

As she stood in the doorway and her eyes adjusted to the darkness of her room, her eyes widened.

There wasn't anything in the room.

Mimi walked into the center of the room; there was nothing there. Not even the slightest hint that anyone had ever lived in that room. This _was _Dimentio's room; it was always the door right across from hers and to the left. She'd encountered him leaving many times.

What did Dimentio need with an empty room?

"What, indeed?"

Mimi shrieked and turned around. Dimentio was hovering in front of her, arms crossed. His face wore its ever-present grin, but it looked a bit forced.

"Stop sneaking up on me, meanie-head!"

"What were you doing in my room?" Dimentio asked. His voice was tight and controlled. Mimi shook her head.

"Nothing. I was looking for an extra...flashlight."

Dimentio's grin twitched. "And did you find one?"

"No, and I will just be on my way," Mimi said, turning around and storming into her bedroom. The door slammed shut behind her.

Mimi sat on the floor and pressed her ear against the door. She heard the clicking of Dimentio's heels on the floor, his door shut, and then the telltale sound of him teleporting away.

She carefully opened her door, peeking her head out.

This was getting old, Mimi thought, Dimentio sneaking up on her, her running around and doing nothing. She sighed.

Castle Bleck.

She wondered how the person it was named for was doing now.

* * *

**A/N: Yeah, this definitely isn't working. I'm hitting a serious writer's block here, I suppose.**

**Basically, I'm putting this on an indefinite hiatus until I can work out the plot a bit more. I have points A and C, and I have no idea where point B went.**

**I feel bad for doing this, but I'd feel worse forcing myself to write through this when I don't know where everything's going. It's going all over the place.  
I'm still going to work on other things, but this might be quiet until I figure out what's happening. **

**Sorry guys. D:**


End file.
